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A Historian's Notebook: Presses, Paintings and Jupiter's Moons

Read a historian's field notes on the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.

The field notes

Read Dr. Asante's field notes. Then answer the questions.

Field Notes of Dr. Kwame Asante, Historian

1Mainz, Germany, Monday. At the printing museum I studied a page from a Bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg in about 1455. His press, built around 1450, used small metal letters that could be set in rows, inked and pressed onto paper, then taken apart and reset for the next page. The letters look so much like handwriting that I had to lean in close. The red and blue decorations around the text were painted in by hand after printing. About 49 copies of this Bible survive, some only in part.

2Before presses, a scribe could spend many months copying one long book by hand. The museum guide told me historians estimate that by 1500, printers in more than 200 European towns had produced millions of books.

3Florence, Italy, Wednesday. Florence was a center of the Renaissance, a "rebirth" of interest in the art and learning of ancient Greece and Rome that began in Italian city-states in the 1300s and 1400s. Wealthy families such as the Medici paid artists and builders. In a church I stood before Masaccio's painting of the Trinity, made in about 1427. The lines of its painted ceiling meet at one point near my eye level, so the flat wall seems to open into a deep chapel. In the museum next door, older medieval paintings often set holy figures against flat gold backgrounds.

4Reminder for my lecture: the Renaissance scholars called humanists studied Greek and Roman writings closely. Many of those texts had been copied and kept by monks in medieval monasteries and by scholars in the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world.

5Florence, Thursday. At the science museum I saw a telescope built by Galileo Galilei. In 1609 Galileo heard of a Dutch spyglass and made his own, stronger ones. In January 1610 he watched Jupiter night after night and drew the small "stars" he saw beside it. I copied his record into a simple table.

6Galileo reported these and other findings, such as mountains on the Moon, in a short book, The Starry Messenger, printed in Venice in March 1610. Its first 550 copies reportedly sold out within about a week. Copies soon reached readers in other countries. Galileo later defended the idea of Nicolaus Copernicus, who argued in a book printed in 1543 that Earth and the planets move around the Sun. Many scholars and Church leaders held the older view that Earth stood still at the center. In 1633 a Church court found Galileo guilty, made him take back his view and kept him under house arrest until he died.

1.
According to entry 1, what made Gutenberg's way of printing new?
  • A. Words were put onto paper for the first time in history.
  • B. Each page came out with its colored decorations finished.
  • C. Scribes could now copy books by hand in a few hours.
  • D. Metal letters could be reset and reused page after page.
2.
Dr. Asante notes that the printed letters look like handwriting and the decorations were painted by hand. What does this suggest about early printers?
  • A. They thought hand-copied books were of no use.
  • B. They copied the look of books readers already valued.
  • C. They tried to hide that their books were printed.
  • D. Their presses printed one page each day.
3.
A teacher in a German town needs 200 copies of a Latin grammar book. How would her situation in 1520 most likely differ from the same need in 1420?
  • A. In 1520 she could get copies sooner and at lower cost.
  • B. In 1520 she would have to order the books from China.
  • C. In 1520 grammar books would be against the law.
  • D. In 1520 she would have to hire more scribes.
4.
Sort each detail from the notes by the change it belongs to.
Metal letters taken apart and resetPainted lines that meet at one pointDrawings of Jupiter made night after nightWealthy families paying artistsA book from 1543 placing the Sun at the centerRows of letters inked and pressed onto paper
Printing pressNew artScientific Revolution
5.
Which statement about entry 4 is best supported by the notes?
  • A. Medieval monasteries refused to keep any ancient books.
  • B. Humanists ignored Greek and Roman ideas and started fresh.
  • C. Humanists built on texts kept safe by earlier scholars.
  • D. Greek and Roman texts were first written down in the 1400s.

Galileo's observations

Use the table and entries 5 and 6.

Galileo's Record of Jupiter, January 1610 (simplified)
Night"Stars" east of Jupiter"Stars" west of JupiterTotal seen
January 7213
January 8033
January 10202
January 11202
January 13134
6.
What pattern does the table show?
  • A. The "stars" kept the same positions from night to night.
  • B. The "stars" moved farther from Jupiter each night.
  • C. The "stars" changed sides but stayed close to Jupiter.
  • D. The "stars" were mostly seen on the east side.
7.
Why did observations like these challenge the older view described in entry 6?
  • A. They showed some bodies circle something other than Earth.
  • B. They showed that stars give off no light of their own.
  • C. They proved Jupiter is larger than the Sun.
  • D. They proved Earth has four moons of its own.
8.
Use entry 6. Write the number of years.

Copernicus's book was printed   years before The Starry Messenger.

9.
Circle the sentence in entry 6 that best shows the printing press helped Galileo's ideas spread.

Galileo reported these and other findings, such as mountains on the Moon, in a short book, The Starry Messenger, printed in Venice in March 1610.Copies soon reached readers in other countries.Many scholars and Church leaders held the older view that Earth stood still at the center.In 1633 a Church court found Galileo guilty, made him take back his view and kept him under house arrest until he died.

10.
The table was copied by Dr. Asante, not by Galileo. What would best check whether it is accurate?
  • A. Asking a museum visitor what Jupiter looks like today
  • B. Comparing it with a translation of The Starry Messenger
  • C. Counting how many telescopes the museum displays
  • D. Reading another historian's notes on Florence's paintings
11.
Claim to judge: "Without the printing press, the new ideas of the Scientific Revolution would have spread much more slowly." Do you agree? Use at least two details from the notes as evidence and explain your reasoning.